Art Cashin: "Heaven Help Us! We May Be Looking At Our Future"

UBS floor guy Art Cashin gets the tone right on what's going on in Washington:

---------------

Heaven Help Us! We May Be Looking At Our Future - The embarrassing fumbling in Congress may not be a temporary mess. There are fears that partisan deadlocks will be with us for years or even a decade. Here is a bit from a Reuters article that I circulated to some friends yesterday:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The debt limit impasse in Washington, where a polarized Congress is struggling to avert an imminent U.S. default, points to a deeper crisis -- America may be entering an age of political paralysis.

President Barack Obama's ability to get any significant legislation passed before next November's election is all but gone and whoever sits in the White House in 2013 will likely face a Congress unable to tackle major issues.

A crisis of governance -- born of decades of gerrymandering, polarization and exploding deficits -- could persist in the short term and may last for a decade, said James Thurber of American University's Center forCongressional and Presidential Studies.

Later, the author cites the widely respected and astute political observer Charlie Cook:

Charlie Cook, a veteran independent political analyst, said gridlock in the House will likely remain after next November's congressional elections and that neither Democrats nor Republicans will have effective control of the Senate -- making the passage of major legislation very difficult. Cook said whichever party wins the 100-seat Senate in 2012 will likely have only a slim majority in the low 50s. Neither party will have the 60-vote supermajority needed to block an opposition filibuster -- a dynamic that means contentious legislation will struggle to win passage. "The polarization has gotten to an unprecedented place," Cook said. "I don't think there's much expectation of major legislation passing in the next year and a half and, to be perfectly honest, it makes you wonder what will happen in 2013 and 2014."

That raises questions about what would happen if we faced a military or financial crisis or even a major natural disaster. Maybe it's not political kabubi. Maybe it's just political chaos, and it's going to be with us for a while.